E-coupons: Just Click And You'll Save

L.A. LOREK CYBERWAYS

Online shopping might have its drawbacks, but it can also be a bonanza for those who know how to play the coupon game.

Many popular e-commerce sites are giving away the store this holiday season to attract customers to their Web site.

They are luring first-time customers with coupons and beckoning them to come back with more coupons and gift certificates worth $20 or more.

Now I've never been a coupon clipper. I have a hard time keeping track of my keys and wallet, let alone a bunch of coupons with expiration dates for specific products. It just takes too much time and effort to clip, carry and redeem coupons.

But now I'm a believer.

Electronic coupons are the way to go, especially the ones that show up in my e-mail box without any effort on my part and beckon me to visit a Web site to redeem my $10 to $20 customer appreciation coupon.

Thanks to online shopping, this past month I bought 40 pounds of dog food from Pets.com for only $4.95 in shipping and handling charges and a $20 Elmo CD player for half-price thanks to a $10 gift coupon from Amazon.com. (And when the order arrived, it contained another $10-off gift coupon good on my next toy purchase.) I also bought a $30 bottle of Lagerfeld Cologne for half-price with a $15-off coupon for first-time customers at Drugstore.com. They also threw in a four-piece lotion and bath gel set for free.

One of the biggest windfalls came from Mothernature.com. It offers first-time customers a $20 coupon good for anything in the store. I bought a "Bath Pals for Kids Gift Pack" that contained six bars of glycerin soap with little toys in them for $19.51. With my coupon, I paid only $3.95 for shipping and handling costs -- and no taxes! Now that's a bargain.

Robert Weisberg, a reader, sent me an e-mail message a few weeks ago, extolling the virtues of online shopping with coupons.

"I found there are tremendous deals online that allow me to pay as much as 50 percent or less than retail, no lines, etc.," he said.

One of Weisberg's favorite sites is brandsforless.com. It offers free shipping and a $25-off coupon for a $50 purchase that can be used following registration.

Also, ebates.com will give customers a rebate check from more than 100 online stores, Weisberg said.

"Their checks go out quarterly, and you can still use online coupons and still get these rebates from brandsforless and ebates," Weisberg said. "However, you can't use promotions from both of them at the same time.''

Weisberg also recommends www.amazing-bargains.com for links to dozens of coupons. Some are as good as $15 to $20 off a $20 order.

"It's like getting the order for free," Weisberg said.

So what's motivating these online stores to give away goods for practically nothing?

E-commerce companies are so hungry for customers that they are giving away money to get registered users. That's so they will build a brand name and can boast when they go public that they have 100,000 or more registered customers.

"What the stock buyers don't know is that the company has mostly people who got a ton of stuff for free or nearly for nothing," Weisberg said.

Online shopping can be a real bonanza for savvy shoppers.

Now if only we could get rid of the shipping and handling charges.

L.A. Lorek can be reached at llorek@sun-sentinel.com or 561-243-6621. You can hear her on Newsradio 610 every Thursday at 8:21 a.m, 11:21 a.m. and 5:21 p.m.